[Tango-L] Argentine Tango Dancer Census

[Alex]

To Tom, Charles, Keith, thorn-inside, tango for her, and others...

Just to clarify...and some other comments on this thread...

A RANDOM START :: QUICK AND DIRTY
My numbers are random and drawn from thin air...but it's a start... call it
a "quick and dirty" analysis...

PASSIONATE :: Definition
My "Passionate" attribute was to narrow the count to those who attend
milongas/practicas/classes (one or all) AT LEAST once or twice a week(or
month)...this would include those of us dancing 4 or 5 or 7 days a week; the
1 year beginner taking a class once a week but never attending milongas; the
dancers not taking classes, but attending one or two milongas a month. It
would not include the newbie taking a class and never coming back - see "The
Newbie Churn" below. This definition also crosses all lines... the good, the
bad, the tall, the short, the traditional, the nuevo - they are all
passionate about Argentine tango.

TOSSING NUMBERS ABOUT vs. EXPERIENCE/KNOWLEDGE ::
Those individuals in the larger (global?) tango community, those more
experienced and knowledgeable than I about the various communities in the
U.S. (The Toms, Keiths, Charles', etc...) could probably collaborate with
their various contacts in each state and come up with a much more accurate
figure. I based my figures on my personal knowledge/experience of the
Denver, Austin, and Atlanta communities - and was simply tossing numbers
about - off the top of my head like you would having a beer at a bar with a
tango buddy.

DENVER ::
That said, and Tom knows better than I, but I still tend to think that there
are 200 (maybe 250) in Denver/Boulder/Ft. Collins who fit this
regular/passionate category. But I would double that figure to take in
everyone else - for the "total" count. 

400 "regulars"? Granted, I was only experiencing Denver tango on an
occasional basis - coming in from the mountains every few months - I guess I
didn't realize there were that many. I kept seeing all the same people at
the Mercury Cafe I suppose.

NEW YORK CITY AND MONTREAL ::
I had no idea the tango community in NYC was so large (wow... sorry...
sheepish grin)... so Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Miami are probably
much higher also...and Montreal, sorry to draw a blank on our good neighbors
to the north...

SEATTLE ::
There is one instructor there who told me his following is 400 students or
so - just for one teacher. Seattle/Portland/Eugene/etc must be up around
2000-3000.

THE NEWBIE CHURN ::
I didn't state this in my first post, but I was excluding newbies taking
classes... Should the totals include the newbie "churn" (Tom's great
word/concept!) ... the people who take only one class (or two) and never
come back? You could probably at least double the totals to take this into
account ... maybe even triple...?

NEW GLOBAL TOTALS :: TOUCHED BY TANGO
When you take into account my initial poor assumptions and resulting
inaccurate count (but really, we are just trying to get a fairly accurate
"order of magnitude" figure, right?)...so perhaps the TOTAL figures are more
like 15000 to 25000 in North America...the same in EurAsia (and everywhere
else)...so we get more like 50,000 to 100,000 folks... total... worldwide...
who have actually danced tango (the one class newbie) ... or are dancing
tango frequently/obsessively (the tangophile)... or who have tango dancing
in their life in some way on a regular basis...those who are "touched by
tango"...

Obviously this range/order of magnitude is not static... a snapshot for our
purposes here...

THE TANGO AWARE ::
This new total would not include everyone who listens to tango music, but
doesn't dance; attends tango shows or musical events (the Alabama Symphony
just had a tango-centric performance last month); purchases and hangs tango
art on their wall; people who have danced tango in the past, but are never
coming back; the people of the world that we might call "the tango aware"...

FINLAND ::
This total also does not count Finland...which skews the figures...whatever
the total census is for the entire universe...that's how many people dance
tango in Finland...their national pastime...

WHAT NEXT? ::
Lastly, if we had an accurate census...what would we do with this
information? For me, it's more of a curiosity thing...